This invention relates generally to information technology (IT) and, more particularly, to administration of IT systems and applications.
Some information technology (IT) systemsxe2x80x94such as voice mail systemxe2x80x94require individual administration items, or data, for their users and also allow the users to personalize some of these administration items. For example, in a voice mail system a user typically personalizes the name they want to use and/or their greeting message by selectively recording these administration items. (It should be noted that in some voice mail systems a system administrator may initially set up a user""s account and record the user""s name and set a default (voice mail system defined) greeting).
Unfortunately, if the voice mail system is changedxe2x80x94these administration items may have to be re-done from scratch causing an inconvenience to the users and incurring a cost to the owners of the voice mail system. While the inconvenience and costs may be tolerable for small size voice mail systems, which support a small numbers of users, they can be significant for large size voice mail system supporting thousands of users.
In accordance with the invention, a computer-based administration tool migrates user data from a first IT system to a second IT system. In particular, the administration tool stores administration data for a plurality of users registered on the first IT system; and then sends the stored administration data to the second IT system.
In an embodiment of the invention, an administration tool migrates user""s names and greetings from a first voice mail system to a second voice mail system. Illustratively, the administration tool accesses the first voice mail system for recording, or storing, each of a plurality of users names and greetings. The administration tool then sends them to the second voice mail system for use therein.